


They'll never break the shape we take

by fayevian



Category: High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (TV)
Genre: Angst and Feels, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Homophobia, Homophobic Language, Hurt/Comfort, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-20
Updated: 2020-02-20
Packaged: 2021-02-19 14:56:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22812862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fayevian/pseuds/fayevian
Summary: When Nini wakes up to an attack on her little family, there's only one person she wants to comfort her.
Relationships: Carol Salazar-Roberts/Dana Salazar-Roberts, Ricky Bowen & Nini Salazar-Roberts, Ricky Bowen/Nini Salazar-Roberts
Comments: 9
Kudos: 136





	They'll never break the shape we take

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first fic I've written since I was a kid (hello Glee and One Direction lol), and this is my first time ever publishing a fic here, so happy to take constructive criticism! I wrote this after realizing that HSMTMTS is unlikely to get into anything serious with Nini having two moms and what that might be like in Utah. As for timing, this is after Ep 10, but I didn't want to deal with any boarding school angst so for this universe Nini wasn't offered a spot. TW for the D slur mentioned once - it's relevant to the story. I don't have a beta so there will likely be some mistakes. Title taken from "Slip Away" by Perfume Genius. Thanks for reading!

It felt...too early to be awake. it was a Saturday, and as far as Nini was concerned Saturdays were for waking up well past the sunrise and scrolling through Instagram until she couldn’t ignore her need to pee any longer. So the fact her phone said 7:25 when she unlocked it was downright disturbing. She turned over to burrow into her comforter and was just about to fall back asleep when the fog lifted from her brain just enough to register her parents raised voices from below her bedroom window. Why were her moms outside this early on a frigid winter morning? And why did they sound so upset? She strained to hear what they were saying but with the window closed and the porch further obscuring whatever was happening, she could only hear the underlying anxiety of their words. Her parents never raised their voices. It was actually kind of annoying how well and thoughtfully they communicated with each other - Mama C said it was with years of practice and couples therapy, but Nini had a suspicion her moms had always been this levelheaded. she must have gotten her dramatic flair from her sperm donor’s genes. 

Nini was just worried enough to drag herself out of bed to go see what was going on, or at the very least tell her moms to be quieter and stop meddling with the sanctity of Saturday morning. She pulled on her fluffiest robe and slipped her feet into the ridiculous High School Musical branded slippers EJ had won her off Ebay when she first got the role of Gabriella. She and her ex had fallen into a cordial friendship since the close of HSM, in which they were kind but distant most of the time, but she really liked these slippers so. They stayed. 

She padded downstairs and turned the corner on the landing just in time to hear Mama D say, “-it before Nini wakes up!”

Nini blinked. What? “What before I wake up?”

Her mothers simultaneously swiveled their heads to look at her. They were standing with the door wide open, the cold air making the front room at least 3 times chillier then it needed to be. Her moms literally told her everyday how much money they paid for the heat when she left the door open for a second. Hypocrites much?

Mama C quickly angled her body to cover the front of the door. 

“Oh honey, good morning! You’re up so early!” Mama C laughed, a little too loudly. “Uh. Nothing you need to be concerned with. Why don’t you go upstairs and practice piano a bit? Your mom and I just have to do something down here.”

Nini wasn’t buying it. “Moms. What is it?”

“Baby, just please go upstairs,” Mama D pleaded, sounding way more strained than Nini was used to from her most even-tempered mother. 

Nini bristled. “Mom. I am 16! You trust me to drive my own car to school everyday, but you want to protect me from whatever it is you two are hiding? You need to tell me what’s going on. I’m part of this family too. I can handle it”

Her moms gave each other a sad, slow look. Then, with obvious trepidation, Mama C moved away from the door. 

In dripping red spray paint, the door read, “No Dykes In SLC.”

Immediately bile rose in Nini’s throat and tears sprang to her eyes. “Who did this?!” she demanded. “When did this happen?!” 

Her moms looked at her in a way that broke her heart further - they looked helpless.

“I took the dog out around 11 last night,” Mama C explained, “and when I let him out to go this morning I saw it. Don’t worry love, I’ve already called the police and they’re going to come take a report. After that we can scrub it right off.” 

That didn’t comfort Nini at all. “But who would do this?!” she demanded again. She hadn’t even realized she was full on crying until she started to speak and could barely get the words out. As long as she had been alive, nothing like this had ever happened. Her moms would sometimes get funny stares at Starbucks or Target, but quite honestly most people didn’t really seem to care about her mothers, and certainly no one in their neighborhood had ever made any indication that they weren’t comfortable with Nini’s little family. 

Mama D climbed up to the landing where Nini had been firmly planted, never having made it to the bottom of the stairs, and raised her arms as if to hug her daughter. Nini’s arms stayed stiffly at her side, too confused and angry to reciprocate, so her mother chose instead to stroke Nini’s hair, speaking in low soothing tones. “We don’t know love, but the Chen’s across the street have one of those Ring doorbells so we’re going to see if that picked anything up once the police get here.”

“Speaking of...” Mama C said, “looks like a patrol car just rolled up. Dana, you want to come outside with me?” 

Mama D softly kissed Nini’s head and whispered, “It’s going to be okay, we can get through this. There are Eggos in the freezer, why don’t you go make a couple and find us something good on Hulu for when we’re done with this mess?”

Nini nodded robotically, and Mama D gingerly stepped outside and shut the defaced door behind her. Just before she did, Nini noticed her mother clasp her other mother’s outstretched had as the police approached, a defiant symbol of love amidst an act of hate. 

Nini did not want Eggo. She did the only thing she could think of doing and pulled up her favorite contacts in her phone, shakily tapping Ricky’s name. He didn’t answer the first time - she knew he kept his phone on silent when he slept, but if she called twice the second call would go through. Three rings later, he picked up. 

“Nini?” he rasped, voice heavy with sleep, “it’s not even 8 what the hell -“

She let out a broken, angry sob into the phone. 

“Nini?” Ricky suddenly sounded alarmed and very much awake. “What’s wrong babe? What’s going on?”

Shakily, between gasps, she told Ricky what had just transpired in her foyer. 

“Ok, Nini, babe, take some deep breaths with me. In one, two, three, out, one, two, three.” Nini complied. “Yeah, just like that, good.”

Ricky coached her through breathing a couple more times, until her gasps calmed just enough to assure him she wasn’t going to pass out anytime soon.

“I’m going to come over now It will take me like a minute to get dressed and about four to skate to your house, so I’ll see you in five. I love you. it’s going to be okay. See you soon?” 

Nini half hummed, half cried into the phone and hung up. She hugged herself softly, trying to further calm down her hiccuping sobs. She felt completely powerless and simultaneously filled with a rage that surprised her. She wanted to take an axe to her own door, chip away at it like whomever did this was trying to chip away at the safety she had taken for granted up until this moment. 

Nini made it the rest of the way down the rest of the stairs and sunk into the couch, absentmindedly picking at the deep blue threads on the sections that had started to go bare. Her parents bought this couch when she was 7 - she remembered it clearly because she was so excited to be a helper and go to pick it out. They let Nini “test” all the couches in the showroom, subtly inching her towards the nicer sets they wanted. But Nini wanted this one. One of her moms, she doesn’t remember who anymore, made some comment about how it wasn’t the best couch, and she pouted and yelled out, “Of course it’s the best couch! it has room for one Nini and two mamas!” and that was that. 

A sudden knock at the window startled her out of her reverie. She looked up to see Ricky’s face, hair disheveled from sleep, full of concern. He had a hoodie haphazardly thrown over pajama pants and an oversized shirt, which she knew really meant he had skipped the “getting dressed” part to get to her faster. Despite the tumult she was going through, she felt a burst of affection for the floppy-haired boy. 

Ricky pointed upwards, glancing back toward the front of her house. Nini silently interpreted his gestures as, “I can’t go through the front door right now, I’ll meet you in your room.” She nodded and turned to walk upstairs, knowing that Ricky would nimbly scale the trellis next to her window. He really was the Troy to her Gabriella. 

She rounded the staircase and stepped into her room just as Ricky clambered through the window, stumbling a bit with his board under his arm. He looked up, his eyes impossibly soft and tender, dropped the board on her carpet, and opened his arms. One, two, three steps was all it took to cross the distance and collapse into his waiting touch, and suddenly Nini was uncontrollably sobbing into his sweater. 

Ricky held her as she cried, rubbing soothing circles into her back. When she started to slump from exhaustion, he gingerly helped her remove her robe and kick off her slippers. With a strong reassuring hand on her lower back he guided her to her bed, still ruffled from her broken sleep. He gently maneuvered her under the covers and crawled in behind her, propping himself up on the headboard to cradle her protectively as she cried herself out. 

Time moves differently with grief. Nini didn’t know how much had passed, but eventually her sobs slowly subsided into sniffles, and she once again began to breathe regularly. She ventured a peek up at Ricky’s face. Ricky stared at the ceiling, eyes rimmed red, angry tears streaking down his slightly freckled cheeks. 

“Ricky?”  
  
“It’s not fair!” he gasped, shocking her so much she jolted backwards a bit. “It’s not fair, your moms have been nothing but the best neighbors to everyone an- and they help run all the block parties! And the PTA! And to see them be hurt and to see _you_ be hurt, all for some stupid homophobic assholes to feel better about themselves?! I swear to god Nini if they find out who did this I’m gonna take EJ and Big Red and we’re gonna. Gonna. I don’t know but we’re gonna do something!”

Ricky was practically seething, and now their roles switched as Nini reached up to hold him by the back of his head and guide his angry eyes to look into hers. 

“We’re not going to solve our problems that way Ricky, because that’s what they want. They want any reason to call my family dangerous, or bad influences, or corrupting, and we’re not going to let them get the chance. But I’m right there with you. Honestly just a couple of minutes ago I was fighting the desire to take and axe to the door”

Ricky chuckled rawly and reached a hand up to wipe a stray tear off her face. “I’m sorry babe, you’re right, and I shouldn’t have broken down like that when this is your-“

“No. stop right there.” Nini commanded. “You have been here for me and my moms since kindergarten, you deserve to be upset and angry and you deserve to share those emotions. In fact, I love you even more for it.”

“Yeah?” Ricky smiled. 

“Definitely.”

He pushed a locked of her deep brown hair away from her face and stared down softly into her eyes. They stayed like that for a moment, just looking. 

Ricky broke the silence first. “I really want to kiss you right now. I know it’s not really the time or place, but…”

“Actually, Ricky, I can’t think of anything that would make me feel better.” And with that, she closed the distance. 

The kiss was soft and slow, full of meaning and love and hurt and understanding. It was the kind of kiss that spoke the feelings that they couldn’t put into words. It was the kind of kiss that could go on forever if they let it. The door, the hate, the uncertainty all fell away as they entwined under the covers, Nini eventually coming to lay on Ricky’s chest as they kissed softly and sweetly, his hands anchoring her waist. 

Eventually, the start of a car engine and the soft click of the front door downstairs signaled that it was time to pull apart, least her mothers come upstairs and see them in this slightly compromising and definitely too-embarrassing-to-be-sharing-with-your-moms position. 

Nini slid off Ricky and curled up at his side, her head lightly resting on his chest as his hand automatically ran through her hair to slowly massage her scalp. 

“What are we gonna do, Ricky?” she asked softly, fear and worry seeping into her voice. 

His hand moved down to the nape of her neck and scratched absentmindedly. He was silent for a moment. 

“Well, first we’re gonna go downstairs and get some breakfast. I dunno about you but I think I want pancakes. Or waffles. Or pretty much anything that can be used as a vessel for syrup.” Nini rolled her eyes, knowing all too well how much her boyfriend would give in order to just drink syrup straight from the bottle in a way that was socially acceptable. 

“Next,” he continued, “We’re going to talk to Dana and Carol about what the police said and how soon we will be able to fix that door. Home Depot isn’t that far away and no offense, but your door needed a couple of new coats anyway.” He winked. “Maybe that under-the-table job I had with my dad's handyman friend last summer will come in use when I show you how sexy I can be wielding a brush.” 

Nini laughed, playfully hitting him on the shoulder before Ricky softly put his hand under her chin, guiding her eyes up to his as he got serious again. 

“Nini, you’re going to get through this. Your moms are going to get through this. You’re the strongest family I know. If someday I’m lucky enough to have a family of my own, I want it to look like yours. My parents.....I don’t know, I don’t think they really ever should have gotten married. But your parents? They fought for their marriage. Do you remember their wedding? When you were the flower girl and I was the ring bearer and we argued over our jobs because I wanted to throw things and you wanted to be the most important? Your moms just laughed and let me be the ‘flower boy’ and gave you the rings. They taught me that it’s okay to express what I need to, and do anything I want to do regardless of whether or not it’s ‘for boys.’ I see the way some of our classmates look at Seb and Carlos and I never grew up with that hate because of your family. I love your moms like they were mine. I love you. And I know that one stupid thing that one person thinks is not going to put a dent in the strength you all have.” 

The second finished his speech, Nini surged up to kiss him. If the last kiss was sweet and slow, this one was decidedly more. This one was filled with passion, a primal need to show him, make him feel, everything she was feeling. Between kisses, she gasped out, “I love you Ricky. I love you. I love you” 

He responded, matching her kiss for kiss, declaration for declaration. “I love you Nini. I love you. I love you” 

Just as Nini began to climb on top of Ricky once again, a startling knock on her bedroom door ripped them apart. She hurled herself to the other side of her bed, nearly falling off as Mama C peeked her head in, squinting at the two kids who were in suspiciously distant positions. 

“Good morning, Ricky, love. Dana is downstairs making pancakes and we’re gonna catch up on the Masked Singer. You two wanna join?” 

Ricky eagerly nodded his head as Nini groaned dramatically, guarding her closely kept secret that she actually kinda sorta enjoyed that show. 

“Ok, be downstairs in ten. And no funny business!” 

“Mom!! Come on, ugh!”

Carol laughed softly and left, purposely not closing the door behind her. 

“Funny business?! God, she’s such a mom!” Nini wrinkled her nose. 

Ricky bopped it playfully with his finger and waggled his eyebrows suggestively. “She did say we had ten minutes left, we could -“

Nini hit him smack in the face with a pillow. 

Downstairs, Carol hugged her wife from behind, resting her head on the other woman’s shoulder as they listened to the laughs and screams of their daughter and her boyfriend doing god knows what upstairs. In the future, there would be police reports to follow up on, family therapy sessions to attend, and certainly an amount of unease in their cozy little cul-de-sac. But for right now, as the smell of maple slowly filled the house, she had a beautiful wife, a talented daughter, and a sweetheart of a boy under her roof, and that was enough. 


End file.
